


Out Of Gas, Out Of Air

by RichardGanseyIII



Category: Firefly, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (!), Alternate Universe - Firefly Setting, Angst, Asphyxiation, Crossover, Death, Guns, Heavy Angst, Langst, M/M, Outer Space, Suicide, Suicide Notes, im so proud of this you guys, klance, my mona lisa my idris elba...., pretty heavy on those things so take care!, suffocation, that too, that's all I think but like, this is my masterpiece, trigger warnings: (please do take care with this fic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-05 03:23:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11569278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RichardGanseyIII/pseuds/RichardGanseyIII
Summary: A fic based on the Firefly episode 'Out Of Gas'.The ship's engine breaks down, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere. In space. What's worse, there's not enough oxygen for seven people. Keith and Lance stay on the ship while the rest of the crew searches for help in an emergency shuttle. Meanwhile, air becomes more and more valuable on the ship with each passing second.[If you want to avoid spoilers at all costs, do not read the tags, but if you know that you're sensitive to certain content, please do check the tags for trigger warnings! This is angst, and I didn't hold back. It may not be the most graphic fic ever, but still. Please be careful and stay safe!)





	1. 21:00, the engine room.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, one more thing: I replaced 'quiznak' with actual curse words, because i felt like 'quiznak' ruined the rather dark atmosphere i'm trying to create in this fic. For the same reason, their personalities might seem slightly ooc, especially Pidge's. My apologies for this, i just wrote what felt right to me.

Pidge threw her wrench against the wall and shook her head. Sweat rolled down her face and her hair was sticking to her forehead. 

‘This is insane. The motor gave out completely.’ 

‘God dammit.’ Shiro cursed under his breath and looked at the ship’s engine. 

He leaned against the wall, watching Pidge try and save what could be saved. Pidge swallowed and watched the smoke coming from the motor rise to the ceiling. The hit they took wouldn’t normally have caused this, but it had been too long since she’d gotten her hands on new parts. This had been a disaster waiting to happen. She found it hard not to be angry at Allura for not getting her the parts she’d asked for so many times. No use in blaming other people now, though. 

Suddenly she noticed a small streak of black smoke among the white steam clouds. Pidge just barely had time to yell and push Shiro and herself to the floor before the explosion nearly burst their eardrums. They could both feel the flames scorching their back as the heat hit them. 

‘Everybody on the ground now! Pidge, get the hell out of here!’ 

Shiro’s voice just barely reached them before the intercoms gave out and the ship went dark.

‘So,’ Allura said, her face lit by one candle, its flame sadly flickering in the dark room. ‘It seems that we’ll be stranded here for a while.’

‘Pidge, how bad is the damage?’ Keith was sitting on the steel floor, the candlelight reflecting off the knife in his belt.

‘How bad is it? Keith, buddy, you may not have noticed it, but the whole engine room just fucking exploded. It’s pretty damn bad.’

‘All right, everybody, let’s just stay calm,’ Hunk said. ‘Being angry won’t get us anywhere right now. I mean, it’s fine, right? Nobody got seriously hurt. We’re all here. The ship may not be going anywhere soon, but hey, at least we’re still hanging in the air. That’s got to count for something.’

Shiro swallowed. The sound was loud in the eerily silent ship. ‘Yes, I agree with Hunk. We managed to trap the worst of it in the engine room, and all of the remaining fires are already extinguished.’ Pidge met his eyes with a hard stare. There was no trace of a smile in her eyes. 

‘Still, there is…I’m afraid we do have a problem,’ Shiro continued. 

‘Life support went down,’ Pidge interrupted. ‘Normally we have a back-up, but since all the systems are down, we can’t access that.’

‘Which means…?’ Lance was sitting on a crate in the corner, his eyes fixed on the little flame lighting the room.  
A heavy silence hung over them, covering the room like a suffocating blanket. Pidge took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

‘It means,’ she said calmly, ‘that we’re all going to die.’

‘Woah, woah! That’s a pretty heavy conclusion there, Pidge,’ Lance protested.

‘We’re in space, trapped in the middle of nowhere, with no electricity to even send out an emergency signal, and we don’t have sufficient oxygen to keep seven people alive. Allura, you were piloting the ship. Did the radar see any other ships or aircrafts nearby?’

‘…No. We are, as far as I could see, alone out here.’

‘Well then.’ Keith leaned his head back against the wall and smiled weakly. ‘I guess we’re all pretty fucked, huh?’


	2. 21:45, the boarding deck

'Are you two really sure you want to do this? Like I said, I am willing to stay here. It’s fine.’

‘We already went over this, Shiro. The decision’s made. Lance and I stay here. There’s not enough room for all of us one the shuttle.’ Keith put his hand on Shiro’s shoulder and smiled, though unconvincingly. 

‘Besides, neither of us is planning to die. You guys still have some air left in the shuttle. You can get pretty far with that thing. Just…get help. And then you come back here and heroically save us. We’ll be here.’

Lance nodded and laughed, his annoyingly white teeth showing clearly. 

‘Shiro. It’s time to go.’ Allura looked at the two boys with a concerned look on her face. ‘Lance, please repeat where the oxygen canisters are?’ 

‘White box, in the steel closet in the cockpit. The lock opens easily, just turn the knob to the left instead of to the right.’

‘Right. We’ll see you soon.’ She looked back to the others, who were sitting in the shuttle. The rest had already said goodbye, except Hunk. He said that saying goodbye would be wrong. 

‘I mean, you guys aren’t going to die, right? We’re just going to come back and it’ll be fine. Don’t worry!’ Then he’d hugged them both. Keith had quickly taken a step back, surprised at the sudden physical contact, but Lance had hugged him back tightly. He didn’t fail to notice that the muscles in Hunk’s arms were tense. He may have refused to say goodbye with words, but that hug had meant more than a simple greeting. They both knew that.

The shuttle took off, leaving a barely noticeable trail of smoke behind. The doors of the boarding deck closed almost immediately, but neither Lance nor Keith could ignore that even in that small timeframe, more oxygen was lost.


	3. Log 1. Time stamp: 22:00

‘Hi! So, uh…as we’d agreed, we’re going to, uhm, record a log every hour. I wasn’t really sure if this counted because, you guys have only been gone for 15 minutes! But,’ Lance cheerfully did jazz hands and laughed. ‘Here we are!’ 

‘Yup.’ Keith sat in the chair next to him. ‘Here. We. Are.’ The doors of the cockpit were locked tight, to ensure that no oxygen escaped the room when it was not absolutely necessary. They were sitting in the chairs that were normally reserved for Allura and Coran, their pilots. They had a perfect view of space stretching out before them endlessly, stars drifting past the ship at their calm, slow pace. Neither of them was in the mood to appreciate it, though.

‘So far, nothing special has happened. We, or, well, those of us who have half a brain, are trying our best our best to limit physical movement. That way we waste as little oxygen as possible. According to the ship’s stats, we should be able to breathe normally for another few hours before switching over to the oxygen canisters. There’s still some oxygen trapped in the different rooms. We’re trying to use it as much as we can.’

Lance playfully stuck out his tongue at Keith and rolled his eyes.

‘So, like I said, everything is chill. We’re good.’


	4. 22:00, ???

Coran stared at the radar and sighed. They’d been flying for an hour now. He’d told Allura to try and get some sleep. They would take turns piloting the shuttle, doing their best to get it as far as they possibly could. They hadn’t seen anything so much as resembling another ship. 

Pidge, Shiro and Hunk were lying on their backs, as still as possible to try and preserve oxygen. Pidge was mumbling softly to calm her nerves, and Shiro bit on his lip to stop himself from telling her to shut up. He knew she was doing it just to keep herself calm, and panicking would waste even more air. It wasn’t just that she was wasting oxygen, though, none of them wanted to hear what she was saying.

‘Slow asphyxiation. Only generalized hypoxia at first, then anoxia. Cold. Cold, cold, cold and nauseous.’

‘Pidge. Could you please stop that? Please. Please just fucking stop that.’ Pidge slowly turned her head and looked at Hunk with large eyes. She hadn’t expected him to be the one to interrupt her. A drop of sweat ran down his face, his chest moving up and down in a slow, repetitive movement. His muscles were tense, almost as much as his voice has sounded.

‘Hmmm. Sorry.’ She stared at the ceiling, silence enveloping the ship once more. She quietly mouthed one word at the ceiling, no sound leaving her lips, only air. ‘Cold.’


	5. Log 2. Time stamp: 23:00

‘Hi. Guys.’ This time it was Keith who talked first. Lance was lying in the chair next to him. His chest rose and fell rhythmically. His skin looked alarmingly pale. Keith instinctively raised his hand to cover his mouth and coughed. 

‘Sorry. Uhm. We still…We still have…ah, fuck…about an hour of air left. Before, uhm, canisters. Yeah.’ 

He placed his hand on top of the control board to keep his balance. It didn’t even matter if he accidentally pressed a wrong button. They were dead in the water. All the systems were unresponsive. The dark lines under his eyes were now more visible than ever. His whole face was gleaming with sweat and his breathing was becoming more and more labored. 

Lance slowly raised a hand and waved weakly. ‘What’s up guys. We’re…’ Lance swallowed audibly. ‘We’re…we’re still good.’

Keith inhaled sharply and turned the camera off.


	6. 23:00, Approaching a nearby ship

‘Allura. Allura, look at this.’ 

‘Huh?’ She stood up, steadying herself on the back of Coran’s chair.

‘This right here. Looks like a carrier ship. It might be able to help.’ He pointed at a blurry green dot on the radar. He didn’t know if the blurriness was due to the radar or to his own vision failing, and he didn’t want to know.

Allura nodded firmly and stared out of the window, into the dark, seemingly empty space surrounding them. Even as a child, she had always wanted to become a pilot. She loved space. Loved the overwhelming, yet calming vastness of it. She’d always known that space would be her grave. But she’d hoped on a graceful death. Not like this. Not slowly suffocating while she gradually lost all feeling in her arms and legs, lost her ability to use logic in every situation no matter what. She refused to die like this. Not now, not ever.

‘Do everything you can to contact them,’ she ordered, her eyes set on their path.

 

The shuttle shook as they were pulled aboard the carrier ship. Bright light fell into the ship. The doors of the ship opened to reveal the inside of a large, spacious ship. The captain was waiting for them. He frowned at the sight of them lying on the floor, the only sign of life being their rapid, uncontrolled breathing.   
He raised his hands to stop his curious crewmembers from entering the ship and pointed at one of the people on the deck. 

‘Get Rivaille, we’re going to need a doctor in here.’

‘Got it.’ The man turned around and ran off to get help. 

Allura was the only one still conscious. Her cheek was resting on the cold floor. She tried to lift her head, but only succeeded in opening her lips and slowly breathing in. The air seemed to set her lungs on fire and she groaned. She heard footsteps marching their way and people shouting. Her vision went blurry, before finally going dark.


	7. On board of the ship. Time: 23:55

Keith? Keith I can’t…I can’t feel my hands. They’re all…tingly.’

Keith turned his head to look at Lance. They were still sitting in their chairs, barely having moved in the last two hours. ‘Yeah, I know. Same here. How much air do we have left?’ 

‘Not enough. I’m going to get the oxygen canisters.’ 

Keith was about to protest, but Lance stopped him. 

‘They’re not going to do us any good if we’re already passed out on the floor without even having touched them.’ 

Keith groaned in response and nodded. ‘All right. Fair point. I don’t think I can hold out much longer either.’

Lance slid down from his chair and allowed himself a short moment to get it together. His thoughts seemed to be bouncing off the inside of his skull, following nonsensical lines of thought and confusing him even more.   
He reached for the closet and turned the knob. Panic flared up in him when it didn’t open. He gripped the knob and desperately tried to turn it again. 

‘God. Dammit.’ He cursed through clenched teeth and punched the iron door in anger. The punch made the knob move slightly to the left and the closet door swung open with a high creaking sound. Relief flooded over him. 

But that feeling left just as quickly as it came. ‘No. No, no, no.’ There were supposed to be fifteen canisters. Two for each of the crewmembers and one extra in case of emergency. Three canisters lay of the floor of the closet, rust having spread over them already. He took one in his hands and examined it. 

‘Keith? How much air do we have left without these? And uh, how much air is in these things exactly?’

‘Right now, we’re pretty much out of air. Those canisters should be enough to keep us breathing for half an hour each. It’s not really a long time, but…well, it’s not like we have a lot of other options, huh?’

‘Yeah. We don’t.’ He held the two full working canisters in his hands. The third one was already half empty. It wasn’t even enough for an hour. The chance that the rest of the crew would be back in less than an hour was unimaginable. Maybe, maybe it would be enough for one person. Lance tried to stop thinking, but he couldn’t help coming to the only logical conclusion. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the cold steel. 

Whatever happened now, he did not want to die. Even though he had his dark moments, alone in his room, wondering if this was really worth all the effort it cost him, he had fought so hard to get through those moments. He didn’t want all that fighting, all that pain, to be for nothing.

Not for the first time today, his thoughts wandered off to his family. They were waiting for him, he knew it. It had been so long since he had left them. He had said goodbye to them, but back then, he’d never even considered that it might turn out to be a farewell. His breathing was erratic and fear clouded his mind.

He stood up and almost fell over, only able to keep himself standing by leaning on the wall. Keith’s eyes were closed. Instead of speeding up, his breaths were becoming alarmingly slow and steady. His head rolled to the side and his chest rose shallowly. He thought about how he would never see those eyes open again, and then he thought of his family. 

‘I’m so sorry, Keith.’ 

The canister hit Keith on the head hard, knocking him out completely before he even had a chance to move a single muscle. Lance put one of the canisters over his own mouth and sighed.

‘I’m so, so sorry.’


	8. 00:00, On Board Of The Carrier Ship

Allura woke up and immediately sat upright, completely disoriented. She was sitting on a large, comfortable bed with white sheets and a steel frame. 

‘Where am I?’ A young woman appeared in the doorway and looked at Allura in surprise. 

‘Wow, you’re already awake! The doctor did say that you have an amazing body. Oh, uh, in a strictly medical way, of course. Sorry. He didn’t really say it like that. I just, uh, right. Anyways, I’m sure you have a lot of questions.’

‘Where are the others?’

‘Oh, don’t you worry. They’re all lying in a different room, but according to the doctor, they’ll be fine. We also looked at your ship and traced your trajectory. It’s amazing how far you guys got with that little air! You got really lucky.’ 

The home ship. Lance and Keith. 

‘What time is it now?’ 

‘It’s now…,’ the woman looked on her watch and smiled. ‘It’s just midnight! Most people are already asleep, but the captain is still up! I already notified him that you were awake. He’ll want to spea-‘

‘Please! You said you traced out trajectory, do you know where our ship is?’

‘Well, yes, but I don’t see wh-‘

‘There are two people still on board. I need to get to them. Now!’

Allura jumped out of bed and ran to the door without even seeing the captain, who was making his way towards her. She stumbled and lost her balance, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back upright. 

‘Woah there, it’s all right. All of your crewmembers are safe.’

‘No. Not all of them.’


	9. Log 3. Time stamp: 00

[ERROR. FILE NOT FOUND.]


	10. 00:27, Back On Their Ship

The quiet was the worst thing. Not a single thing, human or mechanical, made a sound. Shiro was the first to get back on board. The captain had understood their situation immediately. But his ship was a carrier model, made for transporting goods, not for racing against the clock. Instead of changing course himself, he had loaded a shuttle with oxygen canisters and first aid materials. The shuttle was a Hermes 2002, one of the fastest models you could legally buy. 

The darkness onboard of the ship was complete. The candle they had used during their meeting was toppled over on the floor, the wax totally solidified. None of them dared to speak, as if it would disturb the ship itself if they did. They made their way to the cockpit, a sense of urgency and distress pushing them forward. 

When they got there, there was only one body occupying the chairs. His chest rose steadily, but his eyes were closed, a worried frown on his face. 

‘Look, the mist on his oxygen mask. He’s breathing. He’s alive.’ Pidge reached out and touched his shoulder. 

‘Keith? Can you hear me?’

Keith moved his head and mumbled something unintelligible. His frown deepened and he scowled. Hunk reached out and replaced the oxygen canister with a new one. Apparently Keith had attached two canisters to each other so he could use both of them without having to be conscious. Pretty good thinking, Shiro thought. After a few seconds, Keith opened his eyes and groaned.

‘Wh-What?’ 

‘Keith.’ Hunk sighed in relief and looked around. ‘Where’s Lance? I thought he was in here with you.’ 

‘I…Yeah, no, he was. I don’t...ugh.’ He pressed his hand against his forehead and leaned back in the chair. ‘My head feels…I don’t where Lance is. I can’t…’ 

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. 

‘It’s okay. If you’re here, he must be around here somewhere.’

‘Wait. This isn’t…These tapes. We only got around to making two logs. One for each hour. Each hour we were conscious, at least. There…there shouldn’t be three tapes.’

They all stood in frozen silence for a while before Coran coughed and reached out to grab the extra tape.

‘Well then. I guess we should watch that one.’


	11. Log 4. Time stamp: 00:05

The camera turned on. Lance was sitting and smiled weakly at the camera. The smile didn’t look anything like his own. A gun was lying on the control board in front of him. They usually tried to avoid violence, but this was space. Sometimes it was necessary to defend yourself. The gun wasn’t a new model. It had no decorations on the grip or on the barrel. Nonetheless, there was no doubt that it was a fully functional gun.

‘Uhm. H-Hello guys!’ Lance tried to smile broader, but it only made it seem more unnatural and forced. First, he explained the situation. His voice was as calm as could reasonably be expected in his situation. It didn’t suit him. The crew listened as he explained that there were only two full canisters left, their eyes fixed on the screen. Then Lance fell into silence. In the right corner of the camera, the seconds of the recording ticked by. It wasn’t a long video. The end of it was coming closer with every deep breath they took. They all looked on as Lance lowered his head and sighed. 

‘So. Only two canisters left. One hour left. The third one is not completely empty yet, so maybe a little more. Ten, maybe even fifteen minutes extra. I, uh, I don’t know when you guys will be seeing this. It’s not very likely that you’ll all be here in under an hour, so…’ He laughed and threw his head back, his voice raspy and hoarse. ‘Ah, I’m sorry. I just need to, uhm, collect my thoughts I guess. Yeah…As you can see,’ he said, pointing to Keith, who was just barely visible on the edge of the screen, ‘I knocked Keith out. Never thought I’d accomplish that in my life! Uhm, people use a lot less oxygen when they’re unconscious, so I thought…you know. To stretch time.’ 

He put his hand on his oxygen mask and leaned back. He lapsed into silence again. Hunk felt a tear slide down his cheek when he saw that Lance was crying too. It wasn’t the loud, dramatic kind of crying he was used to with Lance. It were just tears, silently gliding down his face and onto his irregularly moving chest. Nobody made any noise. Lance took a deep breath and smiled again. This time it did seem like a genuine smile, even though his lips were surrounded by tears falling down. He wiped his hand over his face to try and clean it off a bit, but it didn’t help. He never had been a pretty crier. 

‘I’m only going to use this can. Keith, and I really fucking hope you are watching this video, both canisters are yours. That means…My oxygen is going to run out in…’ He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again and continuing. ‘Seven minutes. So I just wanted to-‘ He wiped his hand over his face again, choking on his breath and on the words he knew he had to say. 

‘I don’t regret any of this, you know. Not enlisting for the pilot program, not meeting you guys. Certainly not coming aboard this ship. If I could get the choice, right now, to do it all over again, knowing that it would end up like this, I would. I miss my family a lot. Every day I think about what I would say if I could meet them again. But out here, on this ship, you guys were the best…You guys were the best family I could ever wish for. So I don’t want to say goodbye. Instead, I want to say: Thank you. Thank you all so much.’ 

Lance leaned back and smiled, tears now running over his face like a waterfall. His hand shook as he reached for the gun and firmly put his finger on the trigger. The camera was turned off abruptly, the screen turning a deep black.


End file.
